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Paterno said that a final decision on the cornerback has not been made.
Joe Paterno answers a question during his weekly news conference on Tuesday in State College. Penn State opens its season against Akron on Saturday.
AP PHOTO
He’s kept quiet, he’s followed the rules and he’s ready for the season.
Now A.J. Wallace just has to wait for the magic word from Joe Paterno.
After drawing the wrath of his coach for cutting classes over the summer, Wallace is now hoping that Paterno won’t follow through with his inclination to suspend him for the start of Penn State’s season.
In August, Paterno said he was considering benching the senior cornerback “for a game or two,” but hadn’t made a final decision as of Tuesday.
“I’m not sure what we’re gonna do with A.J.,” Paterno said at his weekly press conference. “I had put some rules down that he had to get certain grades, which he got in the summertime. I had to put some other rules down. He’s abided by them. He may end up playing some on Saturday.”
At the least, it would seem Wallace won’t be starting in the season-opener against Akron. The Maryland native was listed on the second-team on the team’s opening depth chart, with Knowledge Timmons and D’Anton Lynn as the starters at corner.
Timmons is a fifth-year senior who has played mostly on special teams in his career and provided depth at safety in 2008. Lynn saw the field as a true freshman last season.
“I think the other corners will work out to be good,” Paterno said. “None of them have had a lot of experience in ballgames except for Wallace, but they’re healthy and they’ve been getting better all the time. So I think they’ll be OK.”
Ware could miss a month
Penn State entered the week with two serious injuries – torn ACLs for linebacker Michael Mauti and defensive end Pete Massaro. Both will miss the entire season.
Paterno revealed Tuesday that defensive tackle Brandon Ware suffered a broken foot at the start of the week and could miss anywhere from four to six weeks.
“We lost Ware yesterday. Didn’t even get hit,” Paterno said. “He was just running and he broke a bone in his foot. … He broke it (Monday) early in the practice. He wasn’t even doing anything but a drill, just changing direction.”
A redshirt freshman from Harrisburg, Ware has been something of a special project for Paterno.
At 340 pounds, Ware has drawn public criticism from Paterno, who has been seeking to motivate him a la Jimmy Kennedy, who went from a 400-pound freshman tackle to an All-American at Penn State.
Loose change
Although Akron will likely come out throwing on Saturday, Paterno and his coaching staff have been toying with the idea of going without a nickel package on defense.
The idea is that the Lions’ linebackers – particularly outside starters Sean Lee and Navorro Bowman – are athletic enough to keep up with slot receivers when dropping back into coverage.
As such, Penn State has yet to designate a nickelback to sub in for a linebacker on passing downs, and the team has not been practicing the scheme.
“We don’t have a nickel back so far. We really don’t,” Paterno said. “Our linebackers have been good. We’ll have to see what happens this week. … If our linebackers can play the way we think, and they can be outside linebackers that can walk away from the line of scrimmage and help on the pass game, we may not use a nickel. We’ll see. A lot will depend on how a couple kids in the secondary come along.
“We’ve debated it. We’ve talked about it. We have a system in place if we want to use it. Probably could use it tomorrow if we wanted to. But right now we’re hoping we can get by without getting a nickel.”